


Churches

by cuneifire



Series: Of revolts and revolutions [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 18th Century, 19th Century, French Revolution, Gen, Guillotine, Historical Hetalia, Napoleonic Wars, dont worry he comes back, france dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 04:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15655878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuneifire/pseuds/cuneifire
Summary: France did notmeanto send all of Europe into a revolutionary war sprawling at his feet; it is simply the sort of thing that occurs at times like these.England can shut up.





	Churches

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys! im back! and working on like three hundred long fics so this is just kind of an interlude! nevermind it took me like 300 years to update this series. hush.  
> Anyways, this is part of a series but you can read it sans other fics (actually it's really the first part but I can't post things chronologically to save my life so...) but again, self promotion is important and you totally should. lol.

 

It is 1789 when France eats an apple. The apple is laden with worms, the queen is shouting her head off, the king is incapable, the peasants are revolting are the grain stores are empty, but for that one second everything is alright.

And then it’s not, of course, but for a second it is.

.

From more or less then on, he wakes up every day with a headache. There is always screaming, there is always fire, there is always chaos. It’s incredibly tiring. He keeps telling himself he's put up with worse, but he fails to believe  _this_ is the state he deserves to be in. 

 _The Revolution is coming_ , he keeps hearing in the back of his mind.  _And this will not stand._

When the queen asks him who's side he's on, he's careful with his words. But truly, he'd like to spit in her face. 

.

Robespierre is a bit of a madman. The particular type of madness the Enlightenment had given presence to, that was the type he possessed; righteous, a believer of truth and reason and science and logic without much knowledge as to what those things truly were, intelligent enough to fool most of the people but not all of them, and then some. France figures the Jacobins may be slightly without a head.

.

It’s 1794 when he’s sent to the guillotine, proving his earlier suspicions eerily correct. Charged for conspiracy to aid the monarchy, against the people. He finds this a bit ironic, and then curses the Jacobins and everything they stand for.

The metal is shiny as it drops down on his neck.

The scar is just above his collarbone, thin and slitted so the edge of his collar just covers it. When anyone asks, he says it is from battle.

.

While the government burns, the military does not. France straps on his belt, pleats out his uniform, loads his gun and sets out to Italy.

The general, he thinks, is rather brilliant.

.

It is the ninth of November, 1799, when Brumaire is taken. France has been slammed against the wall and pushed into the crevices of the corner.

So when Napoléon leans down and the light behind him strikes like an emperor's halo and the young general says “ _Prend ma main et je vais te faire un pouvoir comme rien d’autre”,_ France reaches up, and simply says _yes._

.

France grins wide as he slashes out his gun, bullet ricocheting through the air with a declaration. _Prend soin de toi, Prusse, on prépare pour la guerre._ That, he thinks with satisfaction and a curt slice of a blade, is what Prussia and Austria get for attacking him.

The gun gleams in the sunlight as he looks to the general- Emperor, now. Napoléon stands glorious atop the hill, all the promises of _watch what we can do_ ringing in France’s ears like the endless stretches of conquered enemy territory behind them.

He looks out over the field, unprepared and frightened enemy cavalry prepared to be crushed under their boots like a rotten apple.

France smiles. It is a good day to be alive.

.

He gains enemies like a rich child at a candy store; Austria, Prussia, Russia, the Low Countries and Sweden line up to try and beat him, but they simply can’t. It’s amazing, he thinks as he crushes an enemy’s skull under his spiked boot and watches blood spill out over the field. He hasn’t felt this alive in half a millennia.

The last time he felt like this-

Well, he had just tried to murder England.

It was nice, he thinks as he receives the oh-so-incredibly-obvious news that England has joined the fight and it is not on his side. He would like to try his hand at it again.

.

He fights so many times he loses counts, and wins so much he forgets to remember. But there is one time that he particularly recalls, strikes in his mind like a hot iron.

.

“Where did you get that?” England hisses. He is pointing directly at France’s scar.

 France meets his gaze, and smiles.

“I was killed, and I came back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> Translations:  
>  _Prend ma main et je vais te faire un pouvoir comme rien d’autre_ \- Take my hand and I’ll make you a power like no other.  
>  _Prend soin de toi, Prusse, on prépare pour la guerre._ \- Take care of yourself, Prussia, we’re prepared for war.  
> -The French Revolution began in 1789  
> \- Maximilien Robespierre was the leader of the Jacobins when they came to prominence in the French political scene right after the initial revolution.  
> -The Jacobins initiated La Terreur, or The Terror, an event in which 16 000 people were guillotined for being supposed ‘enemies of the state’.  
> -Napoleon first gained prominence from his career as a military general, including but not limited to his campaigns in Italy.  
> -The coup of 18 Brumaire took place on November 8th 1799, in which Napoleon’s military seized control from the frazzled and exhausted current ruling party, The Directory. The coup is considered to have marked the end of the Revolution.  
> -During the Revolution, both Austria and Prussia launched attacks on France, fearing its new democratic ideals might be violently spread to their own nations. France repelled them, and later reciprocated the notion by attacking Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Feedback is always appreciated!


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